Ladino is Judeo-Spanish language developed by Sephardic Jews residing in the Iberian Peninsula (Igel, 2024). In 1492, following the expulsion of the Jews from Spain, Sephardic Jews migrated from the Iberian Peninsula to diasporas worldwide. These excommunicated Sephardic Jews used Ladino to communicate among themselves in the new communities they were forced to establish, reinforcing their common past. Due to low literacy rates in Hebrew and Aramaic among Sephardic peoples, rabbis explained musar (Jewish ethics) and halacha using calque translations- translating texts word-for-word (Attig, 2012). Initially the term Ladino referred this form of translation. Overtime, it became known as enladinar– a verb meaning to translate texts into Ladino. There is a consensus among scholars that Ladino was only used among communities of Sephardic Jews who could not comprehend Hebrew or Aramaic texts.
- Attig, R. (2012). Did the Sephardic Jews Speak Ladino? Bulletin of Spanish Studies, 89(6), 831–838. https://doi.org/10.1080/14753820.2012.712320
- Igel, R. (2024). Ladino in Latin America. Journal of Modern Jewish Studies, 23(1), 217–229. https://doi.org/10.1080/14725886.2023.2176213